Call for Participation - Explaining the Social World: Approaches in the Social Sciences

The social sciences are in the business of explaining puzzling social phenomena. However, explanatory practices vary widely across disciplines and research traditions—from causal inference and formal modeling to interpretive, historically grounded, and case-based approaches. This diversity raises fundamental questions about the aims, limits, and standards of social scientific explanation. At the same time, philosophers of science have developed rich accounts of explanation that often remain only loosely connected to empirical practice. This two-day workshop aims to bring together practicing social scientists and philosophers of social science to create a space for mutual engagement on the nature and practice of explanation across the social sciences. 

We welcome contributions that engage with social scientific explanation from a variety of methodological and philosophical angles. We especially encourage submissions that connect philosophical analysis with empirical research or reflect critically on existing explanatory practices. Examples of topics to explore include (but are not limited to):

• How developments in social science methodology contribute to changes in explanatory practice (e.g., advances in quantitative and qualitative approaches, mixed methods, causal inference and causal modeling, comparative and case-based research)
• Explanatory pluralism in the social sciences (e.g., variations in explanatory norms and functions across disciplines and research traditions, the role of non-causal explanations)
• The value of philosophical theories of explanation for the practice of social science
• The role of causal mechanisms in explanatory social theorizing
• Models as explanatory devices (e.g., what role do highly idealized models play in explanatory reasoning?)
• The relationship between social scientific explanation and other scientific activities (e.g., understanding, interpretation, description, prediction, measurement, control)
• The role of values, ethical considerations, and power relations in social scientific explanation (e.g., epistemic injustices in explanatory practice, issues of explanatory performativity)
• Institutionalist approaches to social scientific explanation (e.g., differences in how institutions explain and are explained across disciplines and research traditions)
• Case-based reflections (e.g., explanatory practices in research on inequality, populism, migration, governance, etc.)

The workshop will consist of sessions involving participant presentations of up to 30 minutes, followed by discussions. Presentation proposals consisting of a full title, abstract (up to 750 words), and authorship details should be sent to Joonatan Nõgisto (joonatan.nogisto@tlu.ee) by 10.05.2026. Decisions will be communicated within a week (by 17.05.2026).

This workshop is sponsored by The Center of Excellence in Life Course, Wellbeing, and Open Society Studies (TEHA). The workshop will take place at Tallinn University (Tallinn, Estonia).

Workshop organisers: 

• Joonatan Nõgisto is a junior research fellow at Tallinn University School of Governance, Law and Society in Estonia. His main research interests include the theory of explanation, mechanism-based theorizing in the social sciences, and the governance of wicked problems. His PhD thesis examines the methodology of constitutive explanation in political science.
• Petri Ylikoski is a Professor of Sociology (Science and Technology Studies) at University of Helsinki. His research interests include theories of explanation and evidence, science studies, and social theory. His current research focuses on the foundations of mechanism-based social science, institutional epistemology, and the social consequences of artificial intelligence.